Identification of characteristic TRB V usage in HBV-associated HCC by using differential expression profiling analysis

Liver cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide. CDR3 sequencing-based immune repertoire can be closely associated with cancer prognosis and development. Identifying the specific interaction between the TCR and cellular antigens is important for developing novel immunotherapeutic approaches for the treatment of cancer. The rearranged TCR beta loci amplified using Vb- and Jb-specific primers by multi-PCR and sequenced using high-throughput sequencing (HTS) in liver cancers were compared with those of T cells from healthy adult peripheral blood and from adjacent liver tissue. The T-cell repertoires within each tumor show strong similarity to one another but are distinct from those of the circulating T-cell repertoire. In addition, our results demonstrate that there are significant differences in the T-cell repertoires of HCC (hepatocellular carcinoma), ICC (intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma), and MHC (mixed hepatocellular and cholangiocellular carcinoma). Furthermore, we found that the highly expanded clone (HEC) ratio in blood samples from liver cancer patients differed significantly from those in the blood of healthy adults and hepatitis patients (p < 0.001). The above results suggest that comparison of the T-cell repertoires of tissue and blood could be used to distinguish liver cancer patients from healthy adults and from hepatitis patients. In the future, the diversity of CDR3 sequences in liver cancer may prove to be a useful and novel biomarker for detecting aggressive tumors with high invasive or metastatic capacity.